Monday, April 7, 2008

Tonight, I embark on a glorious new adventure, rife with challenges and rich in potential gains. The sort of challenge that separates the men (or women) from the boys (or girls). Failure, my dear friends, is not an option, for tonight...

Tonight, I make scones.

Why scones, you ask? Why, to bring to work, of course. Long story, but to sum up: yes, they have to be scones; yes, it has to be tonight; and yes, it has to be me making them. I'm actually making three batches, from two different recipes found on Tastespotting: this one (with some slight alterations), and this one. I'm rather excited--it's been forever since I tried a new baking recipe. So... wish me luck, I'm off to seek my fortune among the measuring cups and teaspoons.

Friday, April 4, 2008

A couple nights ago, I sat down with some friends to watch the movie Death Proof, and I came to a realization: I have liked every Tarantino movie I've ever seen, in spite of several factors that would logically demand that I despise them. First, I really don't like Quentin Tarantino very much. He annoys me. Secondly, his films are perversely, reprehensibly violent and gory at times. I usually hate that sort of thing--there are many movies that I avoid precisely for that reason (Saw, anyone?). Thirdly, it can't be just me who detects a serious element of misogyny in his films (look here--told you I'm not the only one), in spite of the tough, violent (surprise surprise) female characters he creates. I'm a girl, ergo, I obviously dislike misogyny.

And yet...

Pulp Fiction is still incredibly compelling, even after I've seen it several times. Death Proof doesn't even have much of a plot (summed up: creepy guy kills a bunch of women, gets comeuppance as a bunch of women kill him in a similar fashion), and it's still really good. Kill Bill 1 and 2 were gory, violent, hard to take, and managed to play on a couple of my deep fears (the part where she's buried alive made me horribly claustrophobic, even sitting in a big, open room), and I would watch them again in a second. The big famous one that I haven't seen is Reservoir Dogs, because I always thought that it would be too much violence for me to deal with... but now I really want to see it, if only to prove that I'll probably like it.

As a side note: one of the reasons I like these movies probably has to do with the soundtracks. The music in Death Proof kind of makes the movie, I think. There's a song called "Down in Mexico" by The Coasters that played during the lap dance scene, and even while I was fully engrossed in the movie, I wanted to hear it over and over again.